Ian Naismith is livid over plans to build a sculpture park in honor of his grandfather, James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.

“Let me tell you something,” Naismith said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “If I wasn’t in a hospital right now — I’m having some tests done — I’d be on a plane to Lawrence, and there’d be some serious ass-kicking.”

Naismith, 66, said the park’s promoter, Merlyn Brown, sought the family’s permission for the park several years ago and was turned down.

“He wanted to start his own foundation, using the Naismith name,” said Naismith, who lives in Chicago. “And we said we already have a foundation and he should do it through us. But he doesn’t want that; he wants to draw a salary for himself.”

Naismith is founder and director of the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, which promotes sportsmanship and basketball history.

Brown’s response

Brown said he was aware of Naismith’s opposition.

“He’s upset because I told him the park would be in Kansas and that we’d need to set up a foundation — a different foundation — in Kansas. His is set up in Illinois,” Brown said.

Also, Brown said, the Naismith family does not have control of James Naismith’s name.

“It’s in the public domain,” he said.

To which Ian Naismith says: “It needs to be done with family,” if not legally, then morally.

Brown accused Naismith of taking a cheap shot at the project.

“It’s unfair for him to attack me,” he said. “This is a good project, really. It’s not just about James Naismith. It’s a national and an international memorial to the game of basketball and to its history.”

Brown said he worked with Ian Naismith in 1998 on a couple of banquets sponsored by the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, an organization formed by Ian Naismith, and that there were some unpaid bills from the banquets. Ian Naismith, he said, stayed at Brown’s home. But that was before the relationship soured.

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“Apparently, this (the sculpture park plan) is taking the heat for some of the things that Ian’s organization had a problem with at the time of the banquet,” Brown said.

Brown and Elden Tefft, a retired Kansas University sculpture professor, on Tuesday announced the formation of a nonprofit foundation to raise money for a Naismith Memorial Park and sculpture garden.

The pair hope to build the park on land in or near Lawrence and close to Interstate 70.

“It won’t be on I-70 because you can’t do something like this on the (Kansas) Turnpike,” Brown said. “But we’re looking at some sites that would be visible from the Turnpike.”

Others have concerns

Others have raised questions about Brown’s credibility as a fund-raiser and a businessman.

“Merlyn is one of those guys who has the ability to make someone else believe in whatever it is he’s trying to pull off,” said Marc Carver, a Kansas City, Kan., photographer who said he lost several thousand dollars on a printing project with Brown.

“If he had a penny for every great idea he’s come up with, he’d be a millionaire by now,” Carver said. “He’s one of the slickest characters you’ll ever meet.”

Rick Bryant went to Kansas University with Brown, where the men studied journalism in the 1970s. He said he was not about to support the proposed park.

“It’s true that Merlyn and I had a long-standing friendship,” said Bryant, chairman of the Lawrence airport advisory board. “But it ended over what I guess you’d call ‘irresponsible personal behavior.’ He knows that.”

Bryant said the personal behavior he found objectionable didn’t necessarily relate to business matters but raised character issues

Brown admits he has some unpaid debts tied to past projects.

“I’m trying to work my way out of that,” he said, noting that some investors have expressed interest in a digital, interactive sports card for which he said he holds the patent.

“It’s being taken care of,” he said. “It shouldn’t affect the park and sculpture garden.”

Tefft a supporter

Tefft, 85, founded the sculpture program at Kansas University and is a well-regarded artist. He acknowledged Brown may have had some past money problems.

“I imagine he owes someone money,” Tefft said. “I do. Everyone does. That’s the way things go these days.”

But Tefft said he trusted Brown “very much. He’s a religious person.”

Tefft and other board members also said the foundation’s structure assured that any money raised would be used appropriately.

“I think the way we’ve structured the organization is that no one can take money out for their own profit,” said John Calvert, attorney for the foundation.